FT.com / Columnists / Martin Wolf - Finding a route to recovery and reform gets tough now

FT.com / Columnists / Martin Wolf - Finding a route to recovery and reform gets tough now: "The rescue was unprecedented in scale and scope. It had to be: the world economy went over a cliff. At the beginning of 2009, the annualised fall in a quarterly moving average of world industrial output reached 25 per cent (see charts below). The fall in world trade was even more extreme."

The demise of the dollar - Business News, Business - The Independent

The demise of the dollar -
Business News, Business - The Independent: "In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar."

The problem with our environment is too many of us

The problem with our environment is too many of us: "Natural selection has ensured that we are well-endowed with selfish genes. We will always put self before family, family before community, community before country. Hence efforts to get international agreement on controlling global carbon emissions will always be bedevilled by the "after you" syndrome.

The latest report of the UN population division of March 11, 2009 shows that the world's population is 6.8 billion, and is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050.

When I was born in 1930, there were only 2 billion people on Earth. What has happened to cause this staggering increase, and for how long can it continue?

Cheap Food — National Geographic Magazine

Cheap Food — National Geographic Magazine: "Our beef comes from Iowa, fed by Nebraska corn. Our grapes come from Chile, our bananas from Honduras, our olive oil from Sicily, our apple juice—not from Washington State but all the way from China. Modern society has relieved us of the burden of growing, harvesting, even preparing our daily bread, in exchange for the burden of simply paying for it. Only when prices rise do we take notice. And the consequences of our inattention are profound."

OpenSecrets | Bundlers for McCain, Obama Are Among Wall Street's Tumblers - Capital Eye

OpenSecrets |

Bundlers for McCain, Obama Are Among Wall Street's Tumblers - Capital Eye: "How did Wall Street's largest firms also become some of the largest donors to John McCain and Barack Obama's presidential campaigns? Take a look at the candidates' rosters of bundlers on OpenSecrets.org, and it becomes clear."

CERA: News: Recent Articles: Oil has reached a turning point

CERA: News: Recent Articles: Oil has reached a turning point: "If “Ethanol” was a country, it would have been ranked number five last year among countries in terms of production growth.

The break point is already here. Oil is in the process of losing its almost total domination in ground transport. It is not going to fade away soon – such is the scale of its use and convenience, it will retain a dominant position for many years. But it will share the transport market with other sources as never before, reinforced by a new drive for fuel efficiency."

WRAPUP 1-Harvard and Yale endowments suffer heavy losses

WRAPUP 1-Harvard and Yale endowments suffer heavy losses: "Harvard and Yale, America's two richest universities, said on Thursday their endowments lost roughly 30 percent of their value last year, showing how severely the financial crisis battered even the world's best managers.

Both schools, long admired for delivering top-notch returns for years, warned about the declines late last year when their presidents told students, faculty and alumni about upcoming heavy cutbacks.

Harvard, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said its endowment dropped 27.3 percent, or $11 billion, to $26 billion in the year that ended on June 30. Despite the loss, the endowment has still returned an average of 8.9 percent every year for the last decade while the average comparable fund has risen 3.2 percent, according to research and consulting firm Wilshire Associates."